The spike
in online streaming video users for Netflix appears to have
originated from customers in Canada. The company's traditional
DVD-by-mail service was
not offered as an option to consumers there, they were only
provided with the choice of streaming video.

In
the week following the launch of service to Canadians, 10 percent of
Netflix online usage came from that country and video streaming usage
numbers will continue to increase in Canada and are expected to rise
exponentially in North America overall, according to Sandvine.

In
response to the study, one online report
suggests that another reason that Netflix may be gaining
momentum could stem from the fact that while online users spend only
moments at a time on YouTube, they tend to spend hours
at a time on Netflix.

"That video is growing rapidly and going
to be huge is true," said Akamai's Tom Leighton. "But
there's tons of capacity out at the edges of the network....plenty of
capacity in the last mile to your house."

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Netflix's unlimited service only costs $7.99/mo. Even at 3 movies a month, it's worth it.

No, what's going to happen is the people with ISPs who cap their "unlimited" internet are going to hear their friends with better ISPs talking about how great Netflix is. These people will then complain to their ISPs about how outrageous the cap/price is, or switch if there's a viable competitor.

Unfortunately, in rural America your choices are satellite internet, cellular internet, or DSL, if you are lucky. If you are unlucky, just satellite internet. This country needs a much better internet infrastructure and it needs net neutrality. Unfortunately, every senator or representative who was supporting net neutrality lost and the republicans are more concerned about turning back time. They weren't voted in because of net neutrality. Please let the new representatives and senators know to push for net neutrality. Do it now, before corruption sets in.

Please, stop it. Ever since the internet was de-regulated (Thank you, FCC), almost all foward progress has come to a halt. You are seeing free market economics in action: In the lack of any compeititon, its cheaper to simply throttle users then upgrade infrastructure.

Exactly - it's a lot easier for companies to put high speed anything in a few large cities and rake in $ than it is to put that same service to millions of remote locations. Without the government, most farms probably wouldn't even have normal telephones right now.

My only (non satellite) internet possibility is at the same 52 kb/s that I had back in 1998. I believe I was using a 200 MHz Pentium Pro back then.

I live less than 3 miles from a city whose size is in the to 75 in the nation.

Sorry, I don't believe I can support the argument. In fact, the commerical internet providers are not working diligently to provide upgraded internet service. There no incentive. They have monopolies, know it, and are motiviated to maximize profits. That may be OK if there are alternatives available, but for something that is as essential to everyday life, it is unacceptable. Capitalism relies on competition to drive prices down and improve service. Without this, you get the type of behavior displayed by the internet service providers. The only alternative I am aware of is government intervention.

Why is there no competition though? Why can't communities build their own internet services as some have tried to do?

GOVERNMENT!

Yes in rural areas, no ones going to want to build. Guess what? That's what you get for living in the middle of nowhere. Fast internet isn't a right. It's a service. A luxury. The rest of us shouldn't have to subsidize your internet because you choose to live in the middle of nowhere.

quote: Why is there no competition though? Why can't communities build their own internet services as some have tried to do?

GOVERNMENT!

???

You mean those cases were the municipal government tried to provide an internet infrastructure for their locale and the local telecom buried them in court? Did you also forget that in every single instance of that happening, the plaintiff was also the sole service provider in the area. In every case, the plaintiff was able to restore their previous monopoly.

Face it, competition in the north american communications market is a total sham because the exceptions (competition in major cities) disprove the rule (there's no competition outside of major cities).

In cases where there are hostile monopolies that are taking advantage of the population, the government must step in somehow. I personally don't care if it's regulation, anti-trust suits or fostering competition (in all it's forms), but until that happens, the telecoms are just going to keep taking advantage of their current position.

It's the corporations that block community ISPs, and they do so vigorously even though the reason those communities built their networks is because those same corporations offered such crappy (or non-existant) service that they were forced to.

So the corporations who on one hand don't want those communities as customers, can't stand those communities as a percieved competitor. Your anti-government stance stands at odd angles to reality buddy. You should educate yourself better before speaking out on this matter again... ;)

Really? In America? I'm thinking not. Unfortunately we have bred a society that thinks it is okay to push our ideals on to another because our way is 'better.'

We as Americans aren't taught to be neutral. Look at the info were fed by the media constantly. In one form or another we are told what to think or believe and unfortunately a large part of the population doesn't fall into the 'free thinking' category whereas they actually would form opinions that are truly theirs rather they see an existing ideal and fall in line with it.

Popular media... There is a reason its called popular.

In case you're wondering... I am American. I just loathe the ease with which a lot of Americans can't see past the smoke and mirrors and form their own ideas.